TSC Ratings' Updates: ImClone

ImClone, Kyocera, Altria upgraded; Anadarko, Wesco downgraded.

Each business day, TheStreet.com Ratings updates its ratings on the stocks it covers. The proprietary ratings model projects a stock's total return potential over a 12-month period, including both price appreciation and dividends. Buy, hold and sell ratings designate how the Ratings group expects these stocks to perform against a general benchmark of the equities market and interest rates.

While the ratings model is quantitative, it uses both subjective and objective elements. For instance, subjective elements include expected equities market returns, future interest rates, implied industry outlook and company earnings forecasts. Objective elements include volatility of past operating revenue, financial strength and company cash flows.

However, the rating does not incorporate all of the factors that can alter a stock's performance. For example, it doesn't always factor in recent corporate or industry events that could affect the stock price, nor does it include recent technology developments and competitive dynamics that may affect the company.

For those reasons, we believe a rating alone cannot tell the whole story, and that it should be part of an investor's overall research.

The following ratings changes were generated on Aug. 5.

Shares of ImClone Systems ( IMCL) were upgraded to buy from hold Tuesday. The New York-based health-care company specializes in the development of treatment for cancer patients. This is driven by multiple strengths, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover.